'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies at 70

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Andrew Dalton, Associated Press

Published 4:00 am, Monday, April 12, 2010

Photo: Chris Pizzello, AP

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FILE - Dixie Carter, a cast member in the television show "Designing Women," arrives at a reunion of the show's cast and creators at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills, Calif., in this Oct. 25, 2006 file photo. Carter, who used her charm and stately beauty in a host of roles on Broadway and television, has died. She was 70. less

FILE - Dixie Carter, a cast member in the television show "Designing Women," arrives at a reunion of the show's cast and creators at the Museum of Television & Radio in Beverly Hills, Calif., in this Oct. 25, ... more

Photo: Chris Pizzello, AP

'Designing Women' star Dixie Carter dies at 70

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"Designing Women" star Dixie Carter, whose Southern charm and natural beauty won her a host of television roles, has died at age 70.

Ms. Carter died Saturday in Houston of complications of endometrial cancer, according to publicist Steve Rohr, who represents Ms. Carter and her husband, actor Hal Holbrook. Ms. Carter lived with Holbrook in the Los Angeles area.

"This has been a terrible blow to our family," Holbrook said in a written statement. "We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy."

A native of Tennessee, Ms. Carter was most famous for playing wisecracking Southerner Julia Sugarbaker for seven years on "Designing Women," the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. The series was the peak of a career in which she often played wealthy and self-important but independent Southern women.

She was nominated for an Emmy in 2007 for her seven-episode guest stint on the ABC hit "Desperate Housewives."

Ms. Carter's other credits include roles on the series "Family Law" and "Diff'rent Strokes."

She married Holbrook in 1984. The two had met four years earlier while making the TV movie "The Killing of Randy Webster," and although attracted to one another, each had suffered two failed marriages and was wary at first. They finally wed two years before Ms. Carter landed her role on "Designing Women." Holbrook appeared on the show regularly in the late 1980s as her boyfriend, Reese Watson.

The middle of three children, Ms. Carter was born in 1939 in McLemoresville, Tenn.

Ms. Carter was the daughter of a grocery and department store owner who died just three years ago at 96. She said at the time of his death that he taught her to believe in people's essential goodness.

Ms. Carter grew up in Carroll County and made her stage debut in a 1960 production of "Carousel" in Memphis. It was the beginning of a decades-long stage career in which she relied on her singing voice as much as her acting.

She appeared in TV soap operas in the 1970s, but did not become a national star until her recurring roles on "Diff'rent Strokes" and another series, "Filthy Rich," in the 1980s.

Ms. Carter appeared on the drama "Family Law" from 1999 to 2002, and in her last major TV appearance she played Gloria Hodge, the surly mother-in-law to Marcia Cross' Bree on "Desperate Housewives."

Ms. Carter said the role was far from the kindly woman she played on "Designing Women."

"It's a vast difference," Ms. Carter said while filming the series. "Gloria Hodge doesn't have any redeeming qualities except her intelligence."

In addition to Holbrook, Ms. Carter is survived by daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna.